Quotes About Community

"Every Man a King." Every man to eat when there is something to eat; all to wear something when there is something to wear. That makes us all a sovereign.

I'm for the poor man — all poor men, black and white, they all gotta have a chance. They gotta have a home, a job, and a decent education for their children. 'Every man a king' — that's my slogan.

I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people.

There's no reason for the establishment to fear me. But it has every right to fear the people collectively - I am one with the people.

I have the people behind me and the people are my strength.

Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.

I began to think that Melvin's approach through books was one way to examine these questions. His life required a certain amount of detachment from the community, and that was attractive to me.

All the hipsters with cars, clothes, and money had rejected the family relationship that I valued so highly.

My comrades on the block continued to resist that authority, and I felt that I could not let college pull me away, no matter how attractive education was. These brothers had the sense of harmony and communion I needed to maintain that part of myself not totally crushed by the schools and other authorities.

There is an old African saying, "I am we." If you met an African in ancient times and asked him who he was, he would reply, "I am we." This is revolutionary suicide: I, we, all of us are the one and the multitude.

This was how we grew up—in a close family with a proud, strong, protective father and a loving, joyful mother. No wonder we came to feel that all our needs—from religion to friendship to entertainment—were met within the family circle. There was no felt need for outside friends; we were such good friends with each other.

One of the first things any Black child must learn is how to fight well.

We simply cannot get on as a society by purely individualistic methods, jealously guarding our own interests, governed by thought of self and fear of others. Progress, peace, victory--industrially, nationally, religiously, and in every sphere of life--are given to union, not to disunion.

Friendship is not an obsolete sentiment. It is as true now as in Aristotle's time that no one would care to live without friends, though he had all other good things. It is still necessary to our life in its largest sense.

Love is the only permanent relationship among men, and the permanence is not an accident of it, but is of its very essence.

Christ's ideal is the ideal of a Kingdom, men banded together in a common cause, under common laws, serving the same purpose of love.

Hating your neighbour is almost as secure a psychological prop as loving him, especially if he differs from you in looks, language or habits.

Share your M&Ms. There are bags and bags of them all over the place. If you give them one of yours, even one of the green ones, you will not be lacking. Honust Injun. Now apply this to Time, Concern, Touch, Interest and Being Vulnerable.

Reading was closely connected with eating; it was food for the soul. As food nourished physical life, reading nourished prayer. Hence, public reading during meals is a very ancient monastic custom. The reading that the members of a community heard in common, at meals and at other times, helped give them their unique culture.

Friends are God's apology for relations.

We do the right things because it's the right thing to do. We respond to others' needs because they have those needs. Our survival depends on cooperation. [p61, paraphrased]

Signs of the purest form of human love: the love that has nothing to do with emotion or affection; the love that say we will treat each other kindly and respectfully, regardless of how we happen to feel about each other, because we know that's the only way a human community can thrive. p19 [Prologue: A Loving Country?]

Some Christians feel embarrassed to admit doubts because they've been told that if they just had enough faith, they'd harbor no doubts. They worry that people might find out about their doubts and, consequently, think less of them as Jesus's followers. If we meet someone who struggles in this way, let's be ready to remind them that since God knows our doubts already, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by admitting them and asking for help.

We need not worship the nation to which we belong.